Every design for Vörå

The broad, flat fields of the river valley north-east of Vaasa, land that was once seabed, earned Vörå its old nickname, the kingdom of rye. Today pig farming is the backbone of the farms, and the parish church on its hill has stood since the seventeenth century.

Vörå lies in Ostrobothnia, a little inland from the Gulf of Bothnia and a short drive east of Vaasa, right on a historical language border. Most people here speak Swedish, in a dialect all their own, yet the village names and even the parish name are Finnish in origin, the latter perhaps from vieru, a slope or edge. The municipality takes in Oravais, home to one of Finland's first ironworks and the site of the Battle of Oravais in the Finnish War, and Maxmo.

The map is full of small, particular places: the Rökiö kvarn mill, the Myrbergsgården and Vernersmuseum collections, the hill of Trollberget, the Hans och Greta attraction and the Vörå rullskidbana roller-ski track, where summer training goes on long after the snow has gone.